FOREWORD
"The desert waited,
silent, hot and fierce
in its desolation;
Holding its treasures under the seal of death
against the coming of the strong ones."
--HAROLD BELL WRIGHT .
BENEATH
the brilliant sun and turquoise skies of
Southern California, guarded on three sides by the sentinel domes
and granite- ribbed hills of the inner Coast Range, with the
turbulent waters of
the tremendous Southwestern River completing the surrounding cordon,
lies the great Colorado Desert of the past; the greater Imperial
Valley of the present-one of the chief monuments to man's
reclamative genius, and an everlasting trophy of his victories over
nature's useless and most fantastic creations.
Where, barely more than a score of
years ago, the Gila monster, rattlesnake, and desert wolf ruled the
torrid wastes undisturbed by man, this region, known to the American
aborigine and Spanish Conquistadore as "La palma de la mano de
Dios (the hollow of God's hand) " is now home to thousands of
hardy settlers and their happy offspring. Blistering desert sands
have given way to fertile green fields, where countless herds graze
in peace and plenty. Giant shade trees, fruiting orchards and
vineyards, and vast expanses of winter-grown garden vegetables,
known only to mid-summer and the hothouse in other climes, complete
the almost fanciful mirage of this miracle wrought by man, the
largest irrigated area in the world.
And here, builded sixty feet below
the ocean's level, in the very heart of this vast oasis, the
beautiful Hotel Barbara Worth stands as a memorial to a group of
far-seeing idealists who sought thus to express their confidence in
the dream that must come true in the fruition of a splendid future
for this the country of their creation. In building this gem of
architecture into a commercial enterprise they sought at once to
perpetuate in concrete and mural oil the great, mysterious romance
of the
desert, and to keep alive the traditional hospitality of this
Southwestern Empire, the meeting ground of Spanish Cavalier and
Anglo-Saxon Squire.
The Hotel Barbara Worth was built in
1914 by the Bell Development company, R. M. Taylor, architect and
construction engineer, having charge of the work. It is of solid
reinforced concrete and fireproof throughout.
Upon the sage gray walls of the
spacious and inviting lobby is a cycloramic story of the reclamation
of the Colorado Desert told in mural oils by Luvena Buchanan, an
American artist who won fame in the Paris salons; and Edward Vysekal,
a noted Bohemian painter. These murals depict in powerfully vivid
detail the conquest of the desert, and follow closely the story,
"The Winning of Barbara Worth," by Mr. Wright.
The author dedicated his powerful
reclamation story to his "good friend, Mr. W. F. Holt,"
who is generally recognized as "Jefferson Worth," the
banker .'hero of the tale. Mr. Holt returned the author's compliment
by heading the organization that built the Hotel and gave it the
name of Mr. Wright's heroine, "Barbara Worth."
Whether
or nor Harold Bell Wright disclaims having drawn any of his story characters from real
life, it is a fact that when it was decided to adorn the hotel lobby
with a progressive cycle of murals, and thereby reproduce the tale
by expression of the painter's art, it was Mr. Wright who sought and
selected the models who were to pose for the figures in oil; and
many of them were chosen from among his personal friends and daily
associates during his residence at Rancho Tecolote, east of El
Centro. Many of those whose faces and figures appear on the lobby
walls still reside in Imperial Valley .
In his acknowledgment, written at
Tecolote Rancho, April 25, 1911, and printed in his book, Mr. Wright
makes the following statement:
"While this story is not in any
way a history of that part of the Colorado Desert now known as the
Imperial Valley , nor a biography of anyone connected with this
splendid achievement, I must in honesty admit that this work, which
in the last ten years has transformed a vast, desolate waste into a
beautiful land of homes, cities, and farms, has been my inspiration.
"With
much gratitude for their many helpful kindnesses, I acknowledge my
indebtedness to H. T. Cory, F. C. Hermann, C. R. Rockwood, C. N.
Perry, E. H. Gaines, Roy Kinkaid and the late George Sexsmith,
engineers and surveyors identified with this reclamation work; to W.
K. Bowker, Sidney McHarg, C. E. Paris, and many other business
friends and
neighboring ranchers among our pioneers; and to William Mulholland,
chief engineer of the Los Angeles aqueduct.
I
am particularly indebted to C. K. Clarke, Assistant Manager and
Chief Engineer of the California Development Company, and to Allen
Kelly, whose knowledge, insight and observations as a journalist and
as a student of reclamation in the far west have been invaluable to
me.
"To
my friend, Mr. W. F. Holt, in appreciation of his life and of his
work in the Imperial Valley, this story is inscribed.--H. B. W."
The
fact that Mr. Wright mentions several of the models, selected by
himself for his story in oil, in the acknowledgment prefacing his
printed novel, it would seem is sufficient evidence that those
persons were the real life prototypes of the characters of the work
of fiction as well as those of the painters' art.
After
engaging the artists to do the murals a studio was provided for them
at Coyote Wells in order that they might live in the desert, see it
in all its fanciful moods and varying lights and shades, by day and
by night, and become thoroughly imbued with the atmosphere of the
vast spaces they would seek to depict. Here the backgrounds for all
the pictures were drawn, the portraits being done at the scene of
the permanent work in El Centro.
In
the following pages an attempt is made to convey to the reader a
glimpse at least of the stupendous story the artists sought to tell
with brush and oil and color. |
